We drink a lot of tea at home: Green tea, Chinese tea, Black tea…even Bubble tea! We buy them in loose leaves so that we can brew it in our teapot.

Today while tea shopping, I saw this tiffin carrier at an Antique shop and thought, ‘I could use this to keep our tea stash!’

It’s a lovely piece with cranes and dragons and gold accents around it. Very Chinese. I think even my parents would be pleased with my purchase.

Actually, when growing up I used to cringe at my parent’s taste for oriental furnishing. I never fully appreciated the intricate handiwork and carvings. I kept thinking everything looked so Chinese! This is me…circa 80’s…I am crawling around my house which looks like a Chinese museum.

But how times have changed now. I find that as I grow older each year, I’ve learned to embrace my roots…which has made me a little more sentimental and nostalgic about my past. I also find myself appreciating and liking the same kind of decor or artifacts that my parents like! Though if I were to decorate my home, I think it would be a mixture of the current things that I love and also the Chinese soul in me.

And lastly…as we’re on the topic of tea (which was supposed to be a short post!). If you like tea, I’d recommend that you try the blooming tea. They are tea leaves, flattened and shaped into a ball. When you drop the ball in the teapot, it blooms into a flower! A very pretty sight.

I made Bubur Cha-Cha for a friend’s party. It’s a traditional Malaysian dessert made of various sweet potatoes, yam and taro, cooked in creamy coconut milk and brown sugar. Bubur means porridge and Cha-Cha (sometimes pronounced as Che-Che in Penang, Northern Malaysia) means abundance.

I have many fond memories eating this dessert in my parents kitchen…and you may have probably seen this dish cooked a few times on Masterchef, no doubt by the Malaysian contestants.

Ingredients:
1 medium size gold/yellow sweet potato (cut into cubes)
1 medium size purple yam (cut into cubes)
1 medium size taro (cut into cubes)
8 cups of water
1/2 cup tapioca pearls (sago)
3 stalks of screwpine leaves (pandan leaves)
400 ml coconut milk
Sugar to taste
Rock salt

1. Boil the yam and taro in water with the screwpine leaves.
2. Once the yam and taro are slightly soft, add in the sweet potatoes and tapioca pearls. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to medium.
3. The sweet potatoes usually cooks fast, so to prevent it from being too mushy, I usually scoop them out into a bowl and set it aside. You’ll also notice that the tapioca pearls will start turning translucent whilst cooking.
4. Add in sugar to taste. I used about 3 and a half blocks of brown sugar pieces.
5. Add in coconut milk and a pinch of rock salt. Bring to a boil.
6. Add the sweet potatoes back into the pot and remove the screwpine leaves.

This dessert can be served hot or cold. I usually like to eat it warm when it’s freshly cooked. And then eat it chilled the next day!

Happy bunny year! I hope Mr bunny brings you lots of good fortune and good health!

We made wontons tonight…because what’s New Year without them?

Homemade dumplings

A packet of wonton skins (you can get them at the oriental shop)

For the filling:
Minced pork
Minced prawn (optional)
Chopped spring onion
Chopped chives
Chopped coriander
Chopped onions
Salt and pepper to taste
Sesame oil
Corn flour

Mix all of the ingredients well.

Spoon a tiny spoonful of the filling onto the skin. Fold in half and dab some water around the edges to seal it. Press gently around the edges.

The wontons can be steamed, deep-fried or served in soup.

I’ve been eying Deborah’s creations for the longest time. I thought I would go crazy if I waited any longer to purchase something from her shop.

I decided to get one of her water lily plates so that I could use them for our Lunar New Year dinner.

The plates arrived this week…and let’s just say, I am pretty smitten by its beauty.

My brother-in-law gave us a slow cooker, and I used it for the first time.

Slow-cooked lamb with thyme and rosemary

2 lamb shanks (or more), marinated in salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper
Chopped carrots
Chopped celery
Chopped onions
Chopped tomatoes
3 cups of beef stock
Sprigs of thyme and rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: I didn’t add this but you can also throw in potatoes. If you want it tomatoey in flavour, just add some tomato paste.

6 hours later…

We ate our lamb with Kutjera Sauce on the side. It’s a lovely blend of bush sauce made from desert raisins. You can check out the whole range of native bush food, made and grown by the Aboriginal communities here. I’d totally recommend this sauce!

Rich asked, “Can you make crabs? I’d like to eat crabs for Christmas this year”
“What kind?” I asked him.
“Chili crabs would be nice”

And so tonight I made him sweet chili crabs, baked fish in lime and turmeric, served with nasi kuning (yellow rice).

While eating this meal, I remembered some of my favourite crab eating moments.

Like when my dad took us to eat crabs in Melaka. We ordered black pepper crabs and downed Tiger beer in the balmy night. We talked, ate and drank. It was a good night. Then earlier this year, we had crabs served at our wedding and we took a platter home. Later our friends came over our place and we sat around the dining table, cracking claws with the hammer and tucking into the soft flesh. It was such a fun and messy affair even though the smell lingered on for days!

What is it about eating crabs that makes it such a merry and sociable event? Maybe it’s the part where we’re all sharing the hammer and going crazy with it. Or maybe it’s the act of eating with our hands with such gusto.

Well I hope your Christmas dinner was as merry as mine:) Have a good one! xoxo

Fresh from our garden!

I was talking to my mum on the phone tonight and I promised her that I would blog soon, and post some pictures of tonight’s dinner. So here you go mum.

We found some fresh large banana prawns at the local supermarket. At first I thought I would try to make one of my favourite dishes from Malaysia, Fried salted egg yolk prawns. However I didn’t have any salted eggs with me and I figured that it was probably out of my element! So I made something similar.

Crisp fried prawns

I coated the prawns in flour, curry powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Then I fried some chopped spring onions and added the prawns into the oil and pan fried it.

Some people like to cook their prawns in their shells and some like to shell them first. Any way is fine but I think if I was going to make this dish again, I would remove the shells from the prawns so that it would be covered generously in batter.

Soy sauce tofu with chili and garlic

I’ve found that the combination of soy sauce and kecap manis goes well together. Kecap manis is an Indonesian sweet soy sauce. It is thick and syrupy and has a lovely treacle like flavour. lt can be used on stir fries and noodles. For the tofu sauce, it was a mixture of soy sauce, kecap manis, chili and garlic. You can also substitute tofu with chicken or pork, and fry up some cashew nuts with the lot!

There is only TWO desserts that Richard loves. Anything with chocolate in it…or anything with sweet red bean in it.

He loves Dorayaki in particular, a Japanese pancake wrapped around with sweet red bean filling. I asked him this morning, if he had to choose between a Dorayaki or a chocolate what would he choose? He pondered over this for awhile (which I found quite endearing). He said he would choose a Dorayaki filled with…chocolate! Ha! The best of both worlds.

This is the easiest Dorayaki recipe. It’s so easy that even my husband who is hopeless in the kitchen, can make this all by himself.

Easy Dorayaki
Pancake mix
1 can of sweetened red bean paste (you can get this at the oriental shop)

- Make pancakes as how you normally would
- Add a dollop of sweet red bean paste onto the pancake and spread it around
- Top with another pancake
- Serve with green tea

Making melon stars…

and then off to the post office to post off some Little Mo orders!

Happy Monday everyone! 6 weeks till Christmas time!